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BOOK / GUEST INFORMATION
RISE OF THE BLACK QUARTERBACK: What It Means for America
The starting quarterback in football is nearly always “the face of the game,” at any level. It goes without saying that the QB has an outsized role in determining his team’s success. He’s at the center of action on offense, barking out directions through play calls and handling the ball on almost every single snap. He’s making most of the major decisions on the field. Reading defensive coverage. Anticipating. Leading. Lamar Jackson. Dak Prescott. Russell Wilson. Kyler Murray. Deshaun Watson. Patrick Mahomes. These are just a few of the stalwart signal-callers whose virtuosity on the field inspired ESPN and Andscape (formerly The Undefeated) Senior NFL Writer Jason Reid to write the insightful and enlightening new book “RISE OF THE BLACK QUARTERBACK: What It Means for America” (Andscape Books, August 2, 2022).
Willie Thrower. George Taliaferro. Marlin Briscoe. James “Shack” Harris. They took the field with the weight of an entire race on their shoulders to prove that a Black man could excel at quarterback in the National Football League. In the face of the soul-crushing racism—hate mail, threats, taunts, slights, and other abuses—and those age-old racist tropes that still surface to this day, they persisted and never took one step backward. They demanded to be judged by their performance alone, not by the color of their skin. They persisted and handed the baton off to the other pioneers who followed, for decades on end.
And now superstars like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes are leading the slowly evolving NFL into its second century, wielding and using their hard-earned cultural capital in ways the sports world has never seen before. Yes, the NFL still has a long way to go to make things right, but “RISE OF THE BLACK QUARTERBACK” gives readers the opportunity to celebrate an injustice overcome and grants perspective on this incremental triumph, where we are now and what the future may hold.
THE FOOTBALL HISTORY DUDE BACKGROUND
The Football History Dude is a show dedicated to teaching NFL fans about the rich history of the game we all know and love. I’m your host, Arnie Chapman, and I’m just a regular dude that loves football and is a nerd when it comes to learning about history. I created this show to share the gridiron knowledge nuggets I gain from researching various topics about the history of the National Football League. Each episode I welcome you to climb aboard my DeLorean to travel back in time to explore the yesteryear of the gridiron, and yes, that’s a reference to the Back to the Future Movies.
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